Maruti AMT production may require new plant in 1-2 years

The AMT, which constituted almost 40 per cent of the sales in the Celerio hatchback, today constitutes about 20 per cent each of the Ignis and the new Dzire portfolio.Shobha Mathur | Updated: February 15, 2018, 16:40 IST

In FY2015-16, AMT contributed 3.5 per cent of the total volumes of Maruti Suzuki, and in FY2017-18, its volumes have doubled to 7.5 per cent.New Delhi: The automated manual shift (AMT), which first saw its fitment in Maruti Suzuki Celerio (petrol) hatchback launched at the Auto Expo 2014, is likely to face a shortfall in production for the carmaker.

“Within 1-2 years, we will have to increase production capacity and may have to look at a new plant,” CV Raman, senior executive director –Engineering, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), told ETAuto.

The AMT, which constituted almost 40 per cent of the sales in the Celerio hatchback, today constitutes about 20 per cent each of the Ignis and the new Dzire portfolio.

About 20 per cent of the AMT also known as auto gear shift is being added in every new model that the Japanese carmaker launches in the country and at the current growth rate, capacity for the AMT may fall short of market demand.

In FY2015-16, AMT contributed 3.5 per cent of the total volumes of Maruti Suzuki, and in FY2017-18, its volumes have doubled to 7.5 per cent.

“Acceptability of the two pedal technology as well as its affordability is making it so popular,” said Raman.

Fiat-owned Magneti Marelli Powertrain India -- the key supplier for AMTs -- set up a manufacturing facility in October 2015 for their local production at Manesar in the vicinity of the Maruti Suzuki plant located there. The plant has a production capacity of an annual 280,000 units.

Earlier, the component supplier was supplying the AMT kits from its Italian plant since 2013-end for MSIL for its Celerio and Alto models, and also for the Tata Zest and Nano models.

The supplier had then said that its plan was to complement these supplies in addition to the AMT supplied from the Manesar plant based on local market demand.

But with a growth of about 10 per cent in car sales annually for Maruti Suzuki, the AMT portfolio is steadily climbing up. Maruti currently has a product portfolio of about 17-18 models, with about 50 variants. Besides Maruti Celerio, the AMT equips the Alto K10, Swift, Dzire, WagonR across petrol and diesel options. It is expected to be fitted in the new Vitara Brezza diesel as well. Key competitors are Tata Zest and Nano, Renault Kwid, Datsun redi-GO, Renault Duster and Mahindra TUV300.

The carmaker is believed to have already crossed sales of over 1 lakh AMT cars, with the target being 150,000 for the automatic transmission segment in FY18.

The carmaker has already indicated that its automatic portfolio will touch 3 lakh by 2020, out of the 2 million it hopes to produce by that time.

AMT in Top Gear

Today CVTs and ATs are positioned in a niche segment with CVT penetration being less than 5 per cent in the country. ATs are also limited to the top-end variants of hatchbacks as an optional feature or in premium cars. The AMT, on the other hand, is more popular in A and B segment hatchbacks.

“The use of AMTs is rising annually as it is value for money. More women drivers are opting for AMT variants due to the ease of driving in traffic congestion. It is popular in hatchbacks and has outpaced CVT and AT growth,” said Gaurav Vangaal, senior automotive forecasting analyst of IHS Markits.

He forecasts that the below Rs 10 lakh passenger vehicle segment will see a strong growth in AMTs, while the above Rs 10 lakh segment will see more application of CVTs, DCTs and ATs in the next couple of years.

Moreover, the total automatic transmission market, which was pegged at 4-5 per cent of the total in 2015-16, is expected to spike up to 30 per cent by 2020, according to reports.

A key advantage of AMTs is that it cuts the running cost of a vehicle and fuel bills by about 5 per cent. Emissions are also reduced by 5-10 per cent in comparison to the traditional manual transmissions.

With the government’s focus on environment-friendly and less gas guzzling vehicles running on the roads, AMTs seem the way forward.